A ride system of that kind is known, for example, from the WO 96/07459. In the case of this known ride system the driving mechanism consists of a motor driven cable winch which is seated at the top end of the tower frame and over which a cable pull is led in a number of turns.
The passenger carrier is suspended from the first end of the cable pull and a counterweight from the second end. Again, a coupling is provided for carrying along and releasing the passenger carrier. By means of the driving mechanism the passenger carrier is raised by motor from its lower end position into its upper end position and released in its upper end position by the coupling so that it returns thence in free fall down the frame again into its lower end position. In the lower region of the drop there is a braking arrangement in constant readiness for braking, by which the free-fall motion of the passenger carrier is brought to rest.
A similar ride system is described in the U.S. Pat. No. 2,229,201, though here the cable carrying the passenger carrier is wound up completely to the motor driven cable winch.
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,885,503 is concerned with a similar ride system in which, however, the passenger carrier is guided along an endless rail between its lower end position and its upper end position. Here an endlessly circulating cable or chain pull is also employed to correspond, which is driven over rollers or gearwheels by a driving mechanism. The passenger carrier is engaged with the endlessly circulating motor-driven cable or chain pull and after reaching its upper end position is detached from it for only some of the way during its succeeding downwards motion for the generation of a free fall motion, before in the lower region of the drop it is braked by a brake mechanism and brought into engagement again with the circulating cable or chain pull.
But a disadvantage of the ride systems described above is that during the upwards motion of the passenger carrier no significant acceleration can be achieved by means of the driving mechanisms employed there.
From the EP 0 707 875 A1 a ride system of the kind named initially is also known in which the driving mechanism is formed by a pneumatic cable pull cylinder. Whilst the passenger carrier is attached to the first end of a cable, the second end of the cable, after deflection round the first roller, is led through a seal to the head of the compressed air cylinder and fastened to the piston supported to slide in the latter, so that the cable carrying the passenger carrier forms by its second end the cable pull of the piston of the pneumatic cable-pull cylinder. With such a driving mechanism comparatively high accelerations may be achieved during the upwards motion of the passenger carrier so that this known ride system imparts the sensation of a "blast-off".